


Boy & Cat

by boy_with_the_glasses



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:53:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25153507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boy_with_the_glasses/pseuds/boy_with_the_glasses
Summary: A boy has found a cat. No one told him the cat was magical. And no one warned him about creepy figures into parallel worlds who quote Black Condor from Feathermen.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Boy & Cat

Shinya has troubles on his hands. For the first time in his life, they do not include bullies at school, arrogant adults, or his mother. Although they may indirectly concern his mother, Shinya hardly thinks about her now, hiding from the pouring rain under a tiny canopy. His hoodie is budged unnaturally, and he has to pull his hood over to carry the valuable burden more easily.

Not a burden, berates he himself and sniffs when cold wind flies by. He carries a new friend. Shinya knows what he is talking about because he read on the Internet that the animals saved from the difficult situation are attached to their savior and stay with them as their family.

There is a cute little cat tucked into his hoodie, safe from the pouring rain.

Shinya came across the cat in an alley near the Arcade. He was hiding there from the losers who had lost him in a game, were too stupid to admit it, and tried to become winners differently, namely with their fists. Shinya, as much as it stung to admit, couldn't fight in real life and ran away as soon as he realized that the sharp tongue won't get him out of trouble.

What was it good for, anyway, if it didn't help him avoid the constant beatings? The suckers couldn't handle the loss at all! 

That's how Shinya found himself in the nauseously familiar alley, kicking small pebbles and tolerating the smell of garbage cans nearby. He didn't like to go home early, and losers usually gave up after half an hour, so it wasn't hard to endure it for that much. He picked up the cat from the puddle, the string of curses never stopping. 

He noticed the cat by accident. It was black as tar, and lied almost unnoticeable on the dump asphalt. Only white paws gave it away. Shinya, cursing, didn't think for once, dashing under the rain and picking the stray up, his heart beating in his ears. He _loved_ animals. Wasn't allowed to have one, didn't even ask in the last several years - it would have forced him to spend time at home, _he didn't want to_ \- and yet, as he held the feline close, he didn't have it in him to ignore it.

Selfishly, Shinya wanted to keep it.

He could hear his mother berating him. _Fool_ , she would say, _picking up an animal from the dirty alleyway, who knows from where it came from, how many diseases it carries?_ He ignored her voice as it continued to bear down on him, demanding to drop the cat and walk away. It was drenched. It _whimpered_ in his hands.

He decided. 

He ignored the smell of the wet fur and the dirt on it. He unzipped his hoodie and carefully tucked the cat it, sheltering it from the rain. It was heavy, and he staggered, the new weight almost toppling him over.

Someone wiser would probably take the cat to a veterinary clinic or an animal shelter.

Shinya carried the cat home.

He sneaked it into the subway, then sat with it during the ride. He wondered if it was a stray or if it belonged to someone and was greatly missed by its owned. The owned totally did the shitty work with taking care of it, but still.

And old lady was sitting across from him and regarding them a softly from behind her glasses. Shinya didn't know what there was to look at. Both him and the cat were both soaked from the rain. A woman in a strict office suit even tried to reprimand him, saying he couldn't sit on the passenger seat while being wet. Shinya snorted at her and blatantly turned away. He's tired! The lady might have sat in the office all day, but he was running in the rain with a cat under his hoodie.

In the end, the old lady moved into a seat next to him, shielding him from the cutting gaze of the woman in the office suit. Shinya would have thanked her, but she probably got closer for a reason. He glared at her unfriendly.

"You have a lovely kitty here, boy. Were you caught out in the rain on a walk?" The old lady was bending down just a little as if to get a better look at the cat's snout poking from the hoodie.

Shinya involuntarily pressed the cat tighter against him. "Yes."

"What is _his_ name?"

Why was she asking that?! Stupid adults!

"K-kazyo."

"Kazyo! What a wonderful name! Your cat must be very brave indeed."

Hell if he knew. Shinya saw this cat for the first time in his life exactly one hour ago. He came up with the name on the fly, simply stole it from the character from the Gun About. Stupid. Stupid-stupid-stupid! Couldn't he come up with something more suitable for a cat? And maybe it did already have a name. Maybe it won't like the name that Shinya gave it. He was bad at naming things! He was good at coming up with skills' names only!

Besides, Kazyo was a cool character. Kazyo was a super-duper cool character! Any reasonable enough cat would want to be called Kazyo!

He wondered if the cat's paws could hold a gun.

"You know," the old lady spoke again when Shinya didn't answer her. He only noticed now, but her eyes were an amazing golden color, and he couldn't help but stare at them. "The hope of mankind may find itself in the most unexpected hands. Please look after him, will you?"

"Eh?" Shinya blinked, and in the next second no one was sitting next to him, and the woman in the office suit kept glaring daggers at him.

He blinked again and wiped his eyes. The old lady didn't come back.

He looked at the cat in the hoodie.

Did he... Did he pick up a _normal_ cat or accidentally walked onto the main hero's route where the first step always seemed to be meeting a girl _or_ picking up the magical creature to help him in his journey?

...Yeah, dream more, Shinya. The miracles weren't happening with him. Most likely he simply nodded off because he was tired and had a very strange dream. 

But at least the dream gave him a good idea.

"Kazyo, huh. Then I will name you that."

* * *

Morgana overestimates his abilities.

He knows those aren't great. He has nothing to compare with, yet something simply tells him - he is weak. No matter how amazing Zorro appears to be, no matter how strangely knowledgeable he himself is, it hardly gives him raw power he slowly begins to crave to uncover the truth to his origin.

His numerous enemies - for what else those scary creatures can be - prove to be a wall he can not overcome. He claws and hisses and bites till he learns how to fight, yet the monsters are too strong for him. He slips, drunk on the rare effortless victory is chased down, caught, and laughed at by Shadows. He can barely win against one, what can he do against four? Morgana calls for Zorro repeatedly and still gets beaten down, his weak wind attacks being dispelled easily.

It exhausts him. He gets away from the Shadows and glares at the oppressing Palace. It is an entrance, and he is already overwhelmed. It doesn't help that the knowledge in his head drives him forward, demands to get inside, to reach embodiment of human desires, but the truth is, Morgana does not even know how said embodiment looks like. He is sure he'd never seen it before in his life.

Although can he be sure of anything if the memories of who he is and where he is from are eluding him?

He is a human, that's for sure! And the solution to getting his real body back is hidden somewhere on the wicked side of the world. Only Morgana can't continue to deceive himself - he is tired, hungry, and thirsty, and the next Shadow may as well have become his last. But he doesn't know anyone, or rather he doesn't remember, and he has nowhere else to go.

Except for the human world.

The human world stinks like nothing he had ever smelled before and he can’t find solace in it despite the stubborn belief that he should. The streets look back at him with unfamiliar familiarity, men and women rushing them and turning into one fluid flow Morgana has to believe he was a part of and the change in perspective has simply thrown him off. It is unexplainable hard to do, doubt clinging to him every pat of the paw, doubling with every corner he passes. 

Morgana looks at his reflection into the stained shop window and sees a cat, not a human, is looking back at him; vivid blue, otherworldly bright eyes are the only indication it is more than a stray. 

The weather is as unwelcoming as the city is. Tokyo, his mind whispers, and he desperately clings to the memory that fades faster than he can reach for it. The name doesn’t help him find where he is, and he grumbles at the unfairness of it. He wants to blame someone for it, find where to direct his frustration, but he has no one to scorn but himself, and he isn’t kin on it. 

The longer he wanders, the more he loses his confidence with which he dived out of Metaverse, convincing himself he would easily find shelter, restore his strength and get back to Palace to prove laughing Shadows how wrong they were. Hunger presses on him more urgently, stomach growling and whining. Morgana irrationally wants to curl into a ball and stay like it, yet he is alone, forlorn, unwanted. There won’t be anyone to pick him up, and those who would won't treat him as a human - he looks like a cat and be treated as one. He wrecks his mind and it doesn’t tell him what happens with stray cats on the streets, but the fifth time someone almost steps on him, he hurries away from the busy sidewalk, feeling cast out. 

If there are his friends, some whose faces he can’t recall, they do not seem to be searching for him or even knowing of his predicament. In the underground way filled with shops and stands, he approaches the one where a grey-haired man sells something edible and deliciously smelling. He genuinely waits till all customers are served, just to be sure he would be noticed, and brazenly demand to give him a bite. The man notices him and smiles, Morgana’s stomach growling in anticipation, and bends down to pet him. Morgana grits his teeth and suffers humiliation because he should be given food for it, but when the man stands and gets back to attracting customers, he doesn’t even look back his way. 

“Hey!” Morgana is offended, of course, because if he is reduced to a cat and forced to accept pets controversial to his pride, then he will expect to get something very valuable in return and not to be ignored. “I asked you to give me that thing!” 

The seller doesn’t take lightly to claws on his jeans, nor he seems to be that kind anymore. He immediately scowls and makes a shooing motion with his hands, which only prompts Morgana to dig his claw harder because how dare he, and the second later he is scrambling away with all his strength because of a terrible, terrible sound that the stand keeper has made. 

Morgana’s ears are still ringing even when he is back on the surface, under the downpour rain to boot it. He can’t say what made him def for a painstakingly long moment, and he is shaken, tired, and hungry, and it isn’t only rainwater in his eyes anymore. Humans march the streets without the care in the world and while feeling attached to them, this strange connection fueling his conviction, Morgana wishes to get away from crowds as far as he can. His body is too heavy and he is pretty sure he isn’t moving his paws anymore. When has he fallen? He musters his strength to get on his feet but can barely move a whisker, dump as his fur no doubt. It is cold, it is wet, and he still tries to curl into a ball and give himself at least some sense of security. 

He can’t remember what happened next. He thinks for someone without memory of who he is but filled with passable understanding how the world works, such soon and lonely ends isn’t a fair one. 

It doesn’t help. 

He wakes up.

Morgana blinks, blindsided by bright light streaming through the curtains. He lies wrapped into the dry, unexpectedly fluffy towels, and covered by a light blanket. He can spy a... a heater, his mind supply, nearby, and he preens in its warmth, powerlessly melting and basking in sudden care. He probably purrs, yet he can’t bring himself to care, even when there is a light chuckle from somewhere. His blue eyes shift to find the source of the sound, and he lazily flicks his ears instead of displaying an internal wave of panic overwhelming him. There is a kid sitting right beside him, wet and dump hair sticking to his face, and towel doesn’t help him much to dry it. His clothes are clean and homey, and he looks comfortable if a little tense. There is a strange mix of emotions Morgana can’t put his paw... his paw on. 

“You’re awake.” The kid tells, voice a bit hoarse and a tad too boisterous. Morgana involuntary squeezes his eyes shut and his ears flatten. “Oh, sorry,” the other continues, mindful of the volume this time, still loud yet no longer ear-piercing. He fumbles with his towel and looks away, words obviously not forthcoming. Morgana sighs just under his breath and doesn’t move. He is grateful because it seems the kid took him out of the terrible situation and gave much-needed shelter, and he knows he has to express it somehow, maybe let himself be petted one or two times. He stays where he is, however, because as much as he wishes it to be the opposite, his strength hasn’t returned yet. 

Morgana can say the boy is watching him with morbid curiosity. It grates on his nerves harder than ever and he isn’t afraid to admit it. He wants to demand some respect. He wants to be taken more seriously than a homeless feline craving for heat. There is a sense of shame he tries to bury behind those emotions because it is unbecoming of him to be so vulnerable and dicey. 

He may have lost his memory, but he hasn’t lost his self. 

The kid somehow picks up on it, cat form or not. Morgana’s face is expressive and gaze is telling. It hasn’t helped him with nasty greedy shop keeper though. 

“H-hey, you can sleep, you know?” The kid stammers, all boast, and fake confidence and feeble attempt to present a reliable figure. He fails spectacularly. Luckily for him, Morgana isn’t an animal in a need of extensive care and soothing words, even though the notion that someone isn’t indifferent to his struggles comparable to a beacon in the dark sea. 

“I-I mean... Shit, you don’t understand me, do you? Fuck me if I know how to treat a goddamn cat. And now it is staring at me, please stop fucking staring at me...”

The heater is positioned on the other side of him, so it is puzzling why the heat radiated seemingly from the kid himself warms Morgana more. The feeling is unexplainable, alien yet comforting. He still argues on how he doesn’t want to be treated as a pet but is in need of care nonetheless. He argues over continued cursing streak coming from the kid, argues even when he is half asleep and barely holds his thoughts together. There are two sets of fingers in his fur, one small and careful but steady and unwavering, and second is painfully familiar and calming, clearly belonging to his inner ally. 

Boy’s strokes are incredibly grounding, strong in a way his voice and attitude clearly isn't, and Zorro’s soothing touches tell him it is safe to stay.

So he does. 

* * *

Taking care of the animal is a tedious work Shinya hasn’t been prepared to. His efforts initially are doubled or even tripled because he has to hide Kazyo from his mom, unwillingly confiding the cat to his room. He tells Kazyo so in a very apologetic tone, and gladly his new roommate never leaves even a scratch on the inside of the wooden door. 

Shinya is mindful to lock the window.

Internet is a handy place to get all information he needs, though he sacrifices his arcade time willingly on the very next day he picks up a cat and runs through every high-class pet-shop he can think of. He doesn’t get very far, in the second one the shop assistant seems more than willing to answer his stream of questions and he writes down everything she says. She doesn’t try to sell him expensive cat-food for which he is very grateful because his funds are low as they are. He then runs to a much cheaper, doable for the amount of cash he has a shop and sends the assistant there away with a half-polite grumble and a nod - the assistant gives him stinky eye that goes ignored because Shinya isn’t great with being proper and polite and can’t force a smile when he clearly doesn’t want to so all complaining people can go and get bested by him in Gun About - and then there is sets and sets of items he has to choose from which he does because he is smart and wrote all given to him advises down. 

He manages to buy a litter box and a bowl at a very cheap price. He takes food for cats who needed a little push to recover from fatigue - also recommended to him by a nice lady from the expensive shop - and spends half an hour in front of a toy section. 

Shinya has a little money left on his Arcade and only in Arcade he is able to get additional cash to his humble pocket funds. His mother won’t give him more than she usually does and even then he can be deprived of it because of his not impressive grades. 

He doesn’t buy cat toys for Kazyo and vows to learn to handcraft. 

When he brings his findings home Kazyo takes one loaded look at them, meows something long and complicated in cat language, and turns away. It looks comical because despite not being wrapped into towels anymore, Kazyo still chose to crawl under two blankets and put himself as closer to a heater as possible. The heater, by the way, was definitely switched off when Shinya went to schools in the morning.

In the following days, Shinya learns many things about Kazyo. The most important one, he is very vocal. Kazyo would answer him with continuous meowing as if spelling an entire sentence and shit isn't he a loud one. Kazyo also refuses to eat from a bowl and use litter box. Somehow he is using a normal toilet and while Google assures Shinya it is entirely possible he is still amazed by it. 

He returns the litter box and the bowl back to the shop. He doesn't get his money back.

Against Kazyo it turns out pointless to lock the window. It is clearly unlocked when Shinya comes home and he sees faded paw-prints on his windowsill. He is forced to compromise with Kazyo and leave it open from then on. 

Kazyo sometimes behaves as a watchful adult. He doesn’t let Shinya stay late and definitely has found a sinful pleasure in jumping from his shelves right on him in the mornings. Shinya is never late to his school now, stunning classmates with early appearances, but he doesn’t take pride in it and naps in Arcade whenever he can. 

His hours in Arcade become shorter and shorter, because coming home and checking Kazyo is okay quickly becomes a habit. The cat isn’t recovered from the cold it has caught during that fateful downpour and the hot wet nose is an indication enough. 

Shinya is glad that despite being able to somehow open the window and turn on the heater Kazyo doesn’t wander away. He once comes too early and spies the cat sitting on the ledge, watching cars and people hassling around. Shinya welcomes him back into the room with a salmon because he learned early his new friend is a picky eater and Shinya’s mother never notices when or how or where all salmon disappears because she almost doesn’t notice a lot of things and repeatedly buys necessities on weeks ahead. 

Honesty is a tricky notion because Shinya rarely sees a point of not expressing it outright. Once there were no secrets between him and his mother, before he has started disappointing her in everything that there is. Now he hides a better friend he could have wished for in his room. 

Shinya doesn’t smile often. He frowns, he curses, he spits fire at those who try to approach and befriend them because he doesn’t need them. The winner doesn’t need anyone to be who he is. His mother hoists her expectations on him and calls in his school to scold his teachers for his bad grades. Later those teaches would ask him to stay late but not for the sake of going through the material again but for asking him to put more effort. Shinya almost flips them over and runs to Arcade where he takes both pistols and devastates the game itself. 

His score never goes lower the record he established no matter how hard the game mode is. 

It isn’t enough - it is nothing - to placate his mother when they dinner together from time to time. She isn’t an office worker yet her suits look similar. She asks him how his grades are, asks if he is a winner already and if he is not, which he’s always is, - she hurries him up and demands to bring his own input into society. 

Shinya has little idea what does input into society means but his online friends - followers more like, who hasn’t had a clue they speak with a middle grader - brag too much when he brings it up. Apparently it means to earn money, and it burns Shinya from inside. 

He doesn’t know how to earn money. He just wants his mother to see him as he is. 

A smart remark rests at the tip of his tongue yet he lacks the words to put it in use. 

He lies a bit more every time his mother pries, and Kazyo is still hidden in his room. He doesn’t smile at his mom and she calls him a brat for it. He feels hollow when she does so. 

Staying in front of the Gun About big game screen every day, he reloads fake pistols with detached proficiency. His misses are nonexistent, his enemies are wiped. He curses the noobie who tries to compete with him and the guy - older than him by two years - runs home crying and whining.

Shinya leaves Arcade again, his lifted mood ruined in an instant. 

Kazyo is always there at home. It is what Shinya came to expect and he likes it. 

“The winners are the ones who are allowed to have nice things.” Shinya imagines his mother saying if she would even find Kazyo. “And you are not a winner, Shinya.”

Then she would pick up Kazyo and throw him back on the street. 

Except no, she won't, because Kazyo is a smart slippery cat who slips around fingers whenever his mood isn't up for scratching or petting and the grace with which he avoids things he doesn't like is simply mesmerizing. 

It is probably purely a cat skill so Shinya takes it in stride and stomps down his stupid envy.

It seems his cat is freer of his mother than he is and would ever be.

* * *

The bird on the tree sings prases to unseen spectators, and Morgana eyes it and measures the distance. His cold - and who knew cats can catch cold, isn't it another solid proof that he is undoubtedly human - is almost disappeared, and he starts venturing back to Metaverse. 

His search for the offending Palace is fruitful - he doesn't know to whom it belonged - and pitiful Shadows tremble before mighty him. He finds a place that is labeled Mementos by his mind and suffers a short information overload. The tunnels are endless and filled with distortions and obstacles, the doors that led deeper are closed and sealed, and Morgana fails to grasp the answer to how it is possible to open them.

He stays with Shinya because the boy doesn't mind him and salmon is delicious. There is a basic understanding and respect for privacy between them, and for not being a nuisance or ruining his plans with collars and closed - uselessly so - windows Morgana lets himself be petted and sometimes treated like a cat he isn't.

Shinya hears only meowing but his imagination seems to be an unstoppable force. He translates Morgana's answers correctly more often than not and labels him "magical familiar" or "protagonist adviser" and it is good as long as it isn't a "street cat" pinned to his forehead. Shinya shows him his favorite manga about his favorite game and points out a character whose name he has taken for Morgana. Morgana can't say he had already had a name but the character looks cool and human and, well, it is better than being called Kuro or Cat.

Morgana strolls through Arcade one day and spies Shinya in front of the game machine, dispatching enemy after enemy with amazing precision, and it reminds him he is in dire need of an ally. Shinya seems capable and perhaps there is a potential to an awakening behind the stiff attitude, yet when Morgana visits Shinya's Shadow he is in doubt. It isn't malicious and located on the very first Mementos floor, but...

"Why it is never enough for her?" The yellow-eyed reflection would bellow, with much more cursing than Morgana is wishing to overhear. "I am a winner! They are nothing! And I am the best! Who cares for the bad grades anyway? Look how I crush them on my field!"

And then it would calm and broken sobs would escape its throat.

"I can't be better than I am. I know I am not good enough for you. It is so wrong to stomp on others. I don't want to do that. Please don't force me to do that."

And sometimes, when it sees him, it would smile. Not broken, not awkward, not paired with a scowl or nervous stammer.

"Kazyo is my best and my first friend. I'm so glad he is with me. I don't want anything to happen with him."

There is a rebellious streak in him, yet muted by different nasty colors that won't easily come off. Morgana isn't sure Shinya has it in him right now to break through whatever he is facing, because despite not telling his mother about Morgana's presence, he doesn't go further than that.

It is not enough.

Shinya is a good host. But as an ally, he lacks something crucial.

Morgana is sure that when he sees the right person, he would understand what that something is.

* * *

Shinya is happy. There is a new addition to his life, someone he could call a friend, even if said friend is a cat. His routine doesn't change much but it is lighter somehow when he has someone to talk with, as one-sided as a conversation with a cat can be.

Then Kazyo starts coming home injured.

And Shinya starts to panic.

**Author's Note:**

> I started in the past tense then switched after the first chunk. its noticeable, but its only in the first ch problem, I promise
> 
> someone told me its bad to post new stories when you haven't finished your other stories but I don't think its true. like, I may not finish smth, but it'll give people a new AU or idea they can develop in their head ya know? Im always delighted to see new plot bunnies, etc, and I love sharing. so here I share another work and I hope you like it.
> 
> Shinya is my favorite confidant after Akechi and Iwai and honestly give the boy more screentime I can count his appearances on my fingers lol, so I decided to break Persona plot and have him being, you know, THERE. ah and also Akechi and Shinya meeting up? yes, please.
> 
> also, guess who is the kind assistant at the pet shop? here is a clue: it isn't Akira


End file.
